


It all comes tumbling down.

by traintrackers



Category: Akira (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon - Manga, Canon Compliant, Friendship/Love, Gen, M/M, Pining, but slightly, obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28843788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traintrackers/pseuds/traintrackers
Summary: “Are you jealous, Tetsuo?”Tetsuo’s hand dropped, and his eyes widened, almost comically. But a beat passed, and he looked even angrier.“What? No! Fuck you!” He said. And just in cased it wasn’t enough, he reiterated. “Shut up!”Despite everything, Kaneda felt himself grin. Although none of this was particularily funny.“You are!”————-An expanded version of a scene on issue six in the manga, because I thought Tetsuo sounded pretty envious. Anime watchers will probably understand for the most part.
Relationships: Kaneda Shoutarou/Kei, Kaneda Shoutarou/Shima Tetsuo, also very brief - Relationship, just to respect canon, wrote it very much romantically but can be read as just really intense friendship lol
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	It all comes tumbling down.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this yesterday at 6 am. Lol. This takes place in the sixth issue of the manga. But anime only’s will probably be able to understand too, for the most part. A few lies of dialogue have been taken directly for the manga, but the rest i wrote all myself. However, obviously i dont own akira nor do i claim too. English isnt my first language btw. Hope you enjoy!

Kaneda felt Kei lean onto him, as he tried to breath, lying on the pavement.  
Tetsuo had knocked the air out of him when he threw him, and he felt dizzy. His whole body ached, although he didn’t think anything was broken. 

But he refused to close his eyes, and when he heard the sound of footsteps- faint but forceful- he stood up, holding onto Kei for balance.

Tetsuo arrived. He stopped walking, put his balled fists against his hips, and stared at them, like an angry dog to its owner.

“You’re Tetsuo... aren’t you?” Kei stated, still holding onto him. 

Tetsuo clenched his jaw, but stayed quiet. He felt Tetsuo’s eyes on him, as if checking for damage. The stare didn’t feel remorseful in the least. 

Kei must have noticed it too, because she continued talking.

“Why are you doing this? Kaneda is your friend! Or have you forgotten that?!” 

Tetsuo’s face flashed with a foreign expression, but merged back into anger. 

“Well... Looks like he has a new friend!” He snarled, and paused for just a second- “To die with!” 

And Tetsuo started to raise a hand and oh- this was it- and it was all as if it were on slow motion and the only thing Kaneda could think was- how resentful Tetsuo had sounded. 

The millitary man was near the corner now, and Tetsuo was just a second away from ending it- but words dribbled out of Kaneda’s mouth.

“Are you jealous, Tetsuo?”

Tetsuo’s hand dropped, and his eyes widened, almost comically. But a beat passed, and he looked even angrier.

“What? No! Fuck you!” He said. And just in cased it wasn’t enough, he reiterated. “Shut up!”

Despite everything, Kaneda felt himself grin. Although none of this was particularily funny.

“You are!” 

Tetsuo shaked his head and little pieces on the wall crumbled as he did so.  
“I’m getting tired of this! You two are going to meet Yamagata as soon as I’m done with you!” He screamed, preparing himself.

Oh, that’s right. Yamagata is dead. He still can’t believe it. How could Tetsuo do this? They were friends. They were a group. The possibility of the old Tetsuo he knew being gone stings more than he’d like to admit.  
“Kaneda, we gotta go, like, soon” Kei whispers, clutching his arm. 

She’s right, but Kaneda can’t leave things as is.  
“I know, just gimme a second” 

He takes Kei’s arms off him and takes a step forward.  
“Yamagata is dead because of you, you know?” 

And Tetsuo stops for a moment, puts his hands on his hip again, looking almost proud.  
“So what?”

This isn’t gonna work.

He tries anyway. 

“I’d forgive you, you know?”  
Tetsuo’s eyes widen again, even more than before. Small pebbles and hubris that had been floating fall to the ground, uselessly.  
“Huh?” Tetsuo mumbles, clearly at a loss for words. 

“I mean. Even after you did all that. Leave the group. Kill Yamagata. Almost kill Kei and I- I think I could forgive you- if you stopped right now.”  
He tries, a strange burst of confidence now rushing through his veins.

“I” Tetsuo begins “I don’t need your sympathy! Nor your lies!” He spats, looking ferocious.

“It’s not a lie, man! I’m being serious here! I bet even the others would forgive you, if we just cleared things out! Maybe they need more time or some shit... but I’d convince them!”  
He offers. He doesn’t like getting sentimental like that. But if it can sort this out- then perhaps it’s worth it. Plus, it’s not even a lie. He’s being sincere here. 

Truthfully, he feels angry right now. Furious. And sad. But very angry. Angry for Yamagata. Angry at Tetsuo. Angry at the government. And at those weird kids. Although mostly at Tetsuo.  
However, a part of him, the part that acknowledges that they’ve been basically best friends for years, can’t help but to forgive him. Because Tetsuo would never do this. Not without a reason. Or an explanation. Kaneda has to find out something, anything. 

He has to try.

But leave it to Tetsuo to get offered an olive branch only to break it into pieces, burn it, throw the ashes to the ground, and spit on it.

“No! You’re not the boss of me anymore! Nobody is! And I was serious too when I said I was getting tired of this! This conversation is over!” He screams.

But before Kaneda can try to salvage it, to get the last word, the guy in the corner butts in.  
“Wait!” The man says. 

Tetsuo answers immediately.  
“Get lost!”

But the man persists.  
“Hear me out!” He breathes. “Have you consider what will happen when the pill’s effect stops? When you run out of your drugs? The pain you’ll face? Consider it! Consider where the drugs came from, too!” 

At this, Tetsuo actually takes a step back. Kaneda almost hears the gears in his brain turn, with the way he looks at the colonel, eerily serious. 

“I know what you’re thinking! But you don’t have another choice! Think about it! The power you would have if we could train you! Accept yourself and come with me... number 41!”

“Number... 41?” Tetsuo repeats, shocked, and perhaps, a bit confused.

Kaneda looks at Kei and she looks back. She shrugs. 

He’s so close. He can’t let this happen.

“Don’t listen to him! Come on man, we can fix this! I’m real angry with you right now, but I wasn’t lying! I’m willing to listen! I know you’d never do something like this just because.” And the words just roll out of his toungue, and he’s shocked on how determined he sounds.

“I thought I told you to shut up! I’ll kill you, you know?” 

The man looks ready to intervene, but Kaneda isn’t worried.

“Then do it.” He says, repeating Tetsuo’s own words from earlier.

Tetsuo’s stare alone is murderous, but just like he had thought, he doesn’t lift a single finger. 

He looks at Kaneda and Kei, deeply, and then glances at the colonel.  
“I don’t want your help. I don’t care about the pills. I don’t care about them. Nobody is the boss of me. Not him, not you.” And with a calmness that wasn’t there a minute ago, he starts walking, and Kaneda is frozen, and he isn’t sure if he can harbor it in him to start talking again. 

He wants to know what Tetsuo’s deal is but... he feels far too angry and hurt. 

But as Tetsuo walks, he freezes too, and his knees slightly buckle, and his hands go to his head. 

And Kaneda’s anger doesn’t dissolve, but it leaves again, outweighted by something else.

Tetsuo screams like he has never heard someone do before, and Kaneda can’t imagine the pain he must be in. 

“MY HEAD!” 

“Come with me, and you’ll get what you need!” The man repeats.

Kaneda, as mad as he wants to stay at Tetsuo, can’t help but to feel discusted at the man. He offers aid, and he acts like he cares and like he really wants to help, when he very likely views Tetsuo as nothing more than a weapon for him to use. If he really cared, he wouldn’t offer him empty promises of help, he would just help him. He has Tetsuo’s life in his hands, and he knows it, because he keeps dangling his pills like a zookeeper showing a banana to a monkey in front of the glass, just to see the animal hit the glass as it tries to reach the food and laugh. To him, Tetsuo can’t be more than the frogs they always wanted to dissect at biology class, Kaneda thinks.

Meanwhile, Tetsuo keeps screaming, now almost rolling on the floor. 

Kaneda takes a step forward- and then another- and another. And suddenly he’s next to Tetsuo. 

“Go... away” Tetsuo manages to say, and Kaneda bites back a response, instead deciding to crouch next to him.

Tetsuo looks very small right now.

“This is... none.... ‘f your business” 

“Come on man. Let’s go back. Just leave the clowns and then we’ll have a conversation or something” 

“Stop repeating that” Tetsuo wheeps, and he is failling to look intimidating, with the way he clutches his head and the way tears and snot roll off his face. 

“I’m like- so close to punching you, man.” He confesses, and feels lighter afterwards.

But Tetsuo keeps crying, and he isn’t sure if he’s that close at all.

“ ‘T hurts...” 

Kaneda starts to stoke his hair, only to stop when Tetsuo flinches.  
“I know” he murmurs, feeling defeated. 

This isn’t what he wanted.

He thought he could fight with Tetsuo again- he’d pull a couple of punches, maybe even a kick or too, or something that would make him look cool in front of Kei, and Tetsuo, injured with a bullet on his stomach- still in there, by the way- would lose- psychic powers or not- and then he would bring Tetsuo back and clear this out. 

He didn’t want it to end like this. Tetsuo is making this way too realistic. 

“You really were jealous, huh?” He finds himself saying, instantly regretting it when he feels Tetsuo’s body tense up.

“ ‘m not. Stop saying that” he mumbles, his fingers digging into his head.

“It’s ok man. You don’t need to be. Kei is a really cool girl, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t my friend anymore.”

He pauses to think his words, stroking almost tenderly Tetsuo’s dirty hair.  
“I guess that even you’ve done all that... even if you have been an unbelievable asshole, I’ve already kind of forgiven you. Just a bit”

Tetsuo doesn’t seem like he’s listening. He just keeps twitching painfully.

“...I really need those pills” 

Tetsuo stands up. His face is laced with pain and his eyes are glossy, but he looks weirdly serene. 

“Stop lying man. ‘S patronizing.” 

Kaneda is getting tired of repeating himself. And even more tired of Tetsuo not believing him. Not everything he says is bull, for gods sake. Not with things as serious as that. He’s not that much of a jerk.  
“ ‘m not lyin’.” He grunts. 

Tetsuo gets near and for a second he thinks he’ll pull out his fist or something, payback for getting shot earlier, but instead-

he puts his arms over Kaneda’s back and oh- thats a hug.

Tetsuo is hugging him.

Shocked, he hugs back. He doesn’t want to let go. Kaneda realises that this is just Tetsuo, that maybe it was Tetsuo all along, even if he’s changed, and the death of Yamagata is just started to settle- 

His chest hurts, and he pulls Tetsuo tight, gripping the fabric of his shirt, careful not to dig his fingers nowhere near the bullet wound.

But Tetsuo quickly breaks the hug.

“I really need those pills” he repeats, again, this time more firmly, more sure of himself, and then everything makes a little more sense, because it instantly all clicks in Kaneda’s mind just what choice Tetsuo has made.

But he’s too breathless to say anything, still angry and bitter and grieving not only for Yamagata but for Tetsuo as well- 

Tetsuo faces away from him, breaking the visual contact, and directs his gaze to the colonel. 

“Hey. You were right, I’ll come with you- whatever” Tetsuo barks.  
The colonel looks proud, his face gleaming with the smile you’d have after winning a prize on a claw machine.

“Precisely” He answers, and with a signal from his fingers, helicopters come down, almost instantly.

Kaneda can’t stop staring. He probably seems pathetic. 

He stares at Tetsuo. He looks as serious as before, although Kaneda can tell he’s slighty ashamed, by the way he has his hands on the pockets of his jeans and the way he’s looking at the floor. He’s definitely a bit annoyed as well, with the way his lips are pressed together on a fine line and the way his eyebrows are tense. He looks far too tired, and his tan skin is weirdly pale. He wonders if Tetsuo, too, knows just how little the millitary cares about him apart from his powers. He probably does. Tetsuo has been acting like an idiot, but he’s far from one. Hopefully, he also later realizes that unlike the millitary, Kaneda truly wants to help.

He feels someone shake his shoulder.

“Kaneda, come on. We have to leave” Kei reminds him, and he nods, but his eyes are now blurry. He isn’t going to cry, damnit-

“I know.” She says, and caresses his face with her hand.  
Kaneda holds her, and goes along, although not before breaking apart from her for just a second, just to take one long glance at Tetsuo before leaving.

Tetsuo doesn’t look back.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the evangelion song komm susser tod by the way, just thought it fit tetsuo like a glove. Also did you know in the original spanish dub, tetsuo and shinji have the same voice actor? Now you do! Anyways, i hope you enjoyed reading. Please leave a comment LOL i need validation. :)


End file.
